Week three, still scratching...

I think that at this moment it would be important for me to put down some thoughts about this effort that are not necessarily focused on what techniques, tools and processes that are being used to repaint Ronin. I know that I spend an inordinate amount of time scanning the internet for sources of techniques and tools required to complete the tasks and projects of this refit.

After observing how Charlie is approaching this project, I think some observations are in order.

First, he is doing this project from front to back. From arranging the haul dates with me, the length of time expected to complete the hull, the scope of work, the pros and cons of tackling certain aspects of the project to blocking the hull, prepping and painting the boat. There are no other people involved. Just Charlie. 

I feel as though I have relinquished control my boat and, to some degree, the vision for how it will turn out to him. But here’s the thing, after seeing several of his other jobs and working with him, I can’t imagine any other way to see it through. Although I think that I have a basic level of understanding about how to accomplish this job and a level of understanding about a good job versus a perfect job, it is clear to me that that the final outcome is going to be a level of detail that's a good cut above.

I’ve seen other Awlgrip paint jobs that are good. The hull is sanded, gross imperfections or defects repaired, prior paint jobs sanded off and then the hull repainted. That is not what is going to happen. As I watch Charlie work on the boat I can see that he is repairing gelcoat and laminate problems which is all well and good. But when I watch him sand, prime, sand and prime again to a level of fairness that 95% of owners would not even be aware of and then exceed that level, I am am impressed. It isn’t a matter of discussion with us as to whether this is needed or not. For Charlie it will be perfect and nothing less is acceptable.

When I was planning on painting the boat myself, my expectations of the final results were much, much lower. I would have been fine with that. I don’t have the chops to do more. My results would have passed the 15 yard distance away level of beauty, no sweat.

It has become clear to me that when this job is done, the hull will be more fair than when it left the factory. The finish of the paint will be of Hinckley quality.

Now, does it make sense to do that to a 33-year old production sailboat? No. Will others even notice or care? Probably not. Will we get the expense back on resale? Not a chance.

But will I appreciate the level of effort? Yes. I’m certain that every time I row away from the boat and look back at her I will be reminded of the dedication to the highest level perfection.

Sanding, priming, sanding, priming...

I was concerned that already faint HIN numbers would get lost in the final outcome. Charlie’s fix was to take a Dremel tool and open them up:

While the boat work has been proceeding in the boat shed, I have (very…) casually been working on the new cabin sole flooring. 

First cut:

When I replaced the floor years back I converted the design from three access hatches to just two that were a bit longer. That proved to be a minor irritation because I couldn’t really get to the back part of the bilge for cleaning and finding lost tools.

For this iteration, I will go back to three access hatches.

Laying out the hatch boards:

Expanding the opening with a 10 inch cut:

This last weekend we lost power for almost 24 hours due to high winds from a brutal front passing through. Since the house was cold and we couldn’t get our daily internet fix, we jumped in the truck and drove to our favorite oyster and beer spot, Merrior in Topping, VA. One of the sights that is always sobering to me when we arrive is below.

Sad old derelict at very low tide:

As the story is told, apparently a gentleman brought her in to escape the ravages of Hurricane Isabel (2003) but she went down anyway. And the owner passed away a few days later...

Week 2 in the shed.

Since the boat went into the paint shed I’ve been reduced to pretty much just showing up and taking pictures of the progress on the hull painting. I feel inadequate. But that’s as it should be because the true professional is working away on Ronin. Having seen his work on my friend’s J/40 I sleep well at night.

I need to turn my attention back to work on the cabin sole project residing in my shed but haven’t yet had the opportunity to do that. The “work” of retired life intrudes. Odd.

For this posting I thought I show a series of “before and after” shots. As of Friday, February 6th, the hull had been sanded, cracks and imperfections ground out and most importantly, four coats of AwlQuick primer sprayed on. A goodly amount of progress.

In the following set of photos there is an area on the stern quarter that is grey’d a bit. This is a process that Charlie uses to find imperfections in the hull and the sanding. I know how he does it but am under strict orders of confidentiality to not divulge them.

Stern quarter shots:

Section on the port bow that required grinding and filling:

Port side near the toe-rail:

After some intensive sanding and filling of the stern counter:

Next week, Charlie will be removing 75% of the primer that he applied. With a long-board. I’ve done that and I don’t envy him one bit….

Primed and ready for the board-file:

In the shed, Week 1.

The hull has been in the shed for a week now and Charlie has started in on prepping the hull for painting. When we realized that removing the vinyl rub-rail was pretty much a non-starter, he ran a buffer with mineral spirits along it and despite some cuts and gouges it cleaned up pretty nicely.

The next step was a complete wash of the hull using Mean Green. Afterwards Charlie started taping the boat. Before he completed that I needed to get below the cockpit to look at the layout of the bilge lines and the cockpit scupper drains. This has been an area of annoyance for me since we bought the boat. The main bilge line using the manual Whale pump next to the wheel in the cockpit exits on the port side underneath the stern. The smaller electric bilge pump line snakes up from the bilge, extends over to the starboard side and then “Tee'd” in the starboard scupper drain just above the thru-hull fittings.

When I replaced the replaced the thru-hulls and seacocks some years back, because of the extended height of the seacocks, the hose run from the scupper drains was not direct and had a small sump. Because of this water never completely drained and if there was any debris it often developed a clog. To make matters worse, C&C designed deck level drains with a narrow grove to channel the water to a small scupper drain that led to a 6’ length of hose that, again, did not drain directly downhill. While in theory this seemed a great idea, those drains never did. These lines “Tee’d” into the scupper drains too. A mess.

Up, down and around:

Going forward I plan on doing three things: 1.) running the electric bilge pump line directly to a new thru-hull near the existing manual bilge pump thru-hull, 2.) capping the two small scupper drains in the deck and removing the lines and 3.) removing the grey polypropylene fittings and ensuring that the cockpit scupper drain hose run downhill and free.

The reason for not completely removing and glassing in the shallow groves is that if in the future the boat is used for cruising and I want to catch rainwater, they can be plumbed to the port and starboard fresh-water tanks using small valves to open the flow after all the contaminants have run off.

The drain and channel; nice idea in theory but...

Manual bilge line running aft:

After I finished scoping all that out, Charlie continued taping the boat. Afterwards sanding started. He mentioned that the gelcoat was “hard” and that it was taking longer to sand and using sanding disks at a pretty high rate. Oh well. In addition to sanding he spent some time grinding out any cracks and irregularities that he came across.

Taping:

Sanding and grinding:

An area of resin deficient layup near the bow: 

Final bits before painting.

I assisted Charlie today removing the above the waterline thru-hulls (3), all the tank vents (4) and the outflow for the shower drain. No real surprises or issues, just some moderate effort removing hoses and unscrewing the lock nuts.

Exhaust and bilge pump hru-hulls along with top of the rudder post bits:

Before we started in those items, I needed to get the last bolt out of the stem fitting. The cast aluminum stem fitting used 5 Phillips-head machine screws with nylock nuts to secure it. Because the hull layup in the pointed end of the hull/deck junction was fairly slap-dash, getting a purchase on the nuts was a trying exercise. In particular, the forward port machine screw did not want to come out. Last week we had fabricated a slim wrench to fit in the tiny space forward and used an impact drive to try to remove it. No luck, the threads were galled and the nut wouldn’t budge. Much swearing and grunting occurred...

I pulled out a 3/8” drill bit, chucked it into a corded drill and started in on drilling off the machine screw head. Not too tough, it just took a bit of time and lots of cooling shots of PB Blaster to get it broken. A few hammers on a drift and the screw shaft fell out.

After drilling:

Next step, remove the stem fitting:

 

Bugs? Teeny-tiny birds nest?

From here on for the next couple of months, the hull will be in the hands of the yard, being prepped and then painted.

Although I feel like a turning point has been reached, and it has, there is still plenty for me to do while the boat is being painted. I have the new cabin sole to build and I am going to spend a fair amount of time refurbishing the wiring, running rigging and standing rigging on the mast.

In The Shed At Last

I met Charlie at the boatyard at 8:00 AM and we got right to work on removing the rudder. Neither of us was entirely certain how it was held on but it appeared that a stainless steel cap screwed onto the top of the rudder shaft. Initially when we tried to unscrew it we couldn’t. I posted a question to the always informative C&C list and got a couple of replies that confirmed that it should unscrew and the rudder should drop down.

Charlied fabricated a three inch fiberglass “socket” which fit over the cap and used one of the two set bolts to secure it. With that the cap unscrewed easily.

Unfortunately, the rudder didn’t drop. At all. Hmmmm.

We applied the tap it down method. No luck there either. Shook, turned and bumped it. Again no good. We started to think that the flat plate that secures the upper part of the shaft in line with the tube needed to be unscrewed also. That was physically impossible.

We scratched our heads a bit and kept on jiggling it. Ultimately it broke free and slid down. 

With all my other boats I have had to dig a hole in the yard to get the shaft clear of the hull but this time there was room to spare. One of the benefits of 6’8” draft I suppose.

Rudder out of the way:

With that job done it was time to bring in the travel lift. Charlie wheeled that into place, led the straps and got ready to hoist. The owner of the yard came over to inspect my handiwork on the keel cradle and gave us his blessing to start the lift. The boat came up. And so did the keel. Stuck pretty firmly to the keel stub.

The yard owner, a man of much experience in running a yard and designing and building large powerboats walked over and started kicking and shoving the keel. As he was doing this we could see the hull/keel intersection start to open up. Shortly thereafter, with a significant crack, the keel feel away, Fortunately only about 4 inches. It settled right into place in the cradle and with that we just kept on hoisting the hull.

Okay, so the bilge wasn’t completely dry...

What I had begun to suspect when I was grinding the hull/keel joint the day before turned out to be the case: when a previous owner had the bottom milled off for blisters and redone with epoxy, they must have dropped the keel too. And when they reattached it, instead of any sealant, they filled it with epoxy. The real world consequence of that was that there was no need to use a Sawzall to clear away the joint.

The final lift:

No sealant for me, just epoxy if you please...

One thing that the owner that had the bottom job done was that he either replaced or did not remove the butyl tape sealant around the keel bolts. There was absolutely no wasting of the keel bolts which was a tremendous relief to me. They appeared as clean and secure as the day they left the mold at Mars Keels. I will be using butyl when I re-attach the keel for certain.

Just need a bit of cleaning:

So, finally, the hull, all 8,000 lb. of it, drove off to the shed.  Good to see it moving.

Backing down to the shed:

The yard used to have two very large marine railways, none of which are in use any more. But one railway was left in place leading down into the first of two in line sheds. They built a railway carriage to hold boats and move them into and out of the shed with a small tractor. Pretty clever. This shed is insulated and heated so that operations can continue throughout the year.

Blocking the hull for work in the shed:

So, from here on I will be constrained on how much that I can do on the decks. Best estimate is that she will emerge with a fresh new coat of AwlCraft in around three months. Given temperatures and my schedules that is fine by me.

Inside the shed:

  

It was long day for me, fraught with unknowns but ultimately it proved to be a pretty simple and easy procedure. May the rest of the project be the same...

Okay, Maybe the Hull Comes Off Tomorrow...

It was a perfect day to pull the hull off of the keel this morning. Dense fog, near freezing, ice in the yard and on the boat and generally just a raw, cold, unfriendly kind of day.

Arrived at 8:00 and started pulling the covers off. I had to pump the bilge for a while due to lots of rain and being out of the country for almost 2 weeks. I measured the bolts; all of them except for one in the rear at 3/4”, were 1 1/2”. The boatyard had the appropriate sockets, 3/4” driver and pipe extension.

Manly Tools:

I cleaned up the mess surrounding the bolts and started in on removing them. Phenomenally easy. So, either they were never torqued correctly or it’s just easy with something of that size. Either way, the bolts were off and out within 30 minutes.

After that I started in on grinding out the keel/hull joint while the yard worker started in on getting the rudder ready to drop. One thing that stood out for me was that there was not a lick of sealant between the keel and the keel stub. I expected to find some. Not sure what’s going one but I do know that a previous owner had the bottom shaved off and replaced with epoxy and what I think I see in the joint is lots of epoxy.

Keel/Hull Work:

While I worked on the keel. Charlie, the boatyard guy, worked on getting the rudder ready to drop. He spent a lot of time under the cockpit. We soaked the bolts on the quadrant earlier with PB Blaster and hit them with the propane torch. It was pretty clear that they had never been touched since the boat rolled out of the factory in Canada. No real reason to suspect why they should have.

But as is usually the case with stainless steel bolts in aluminum threads, several decided that they didn’t want to budge. A couple of hours later the heads were cut off and the quadrant lay in pieces under the cockpit. As always with projects some things that seem easy end up being larger jobs than thought.

Now it’s much later in the day. After removing the two bolts securing the top-piece on the end of the rudder shaft we couldn’t move it. Ergo, the rudder remained firmly in place. After not forcing it but applying the just “getting a bigger rock” work method we were able to get it to start to unscrew. Which we hope is how it is attached….

Anyway, Charlie is going to make a tool to use for unscrewing it and we will get back to the job bright (hopefully) and early tomorrow.

Rudder that won’t drop:

 

The Hull Starts To Comes Off

Another quick (and sporadic post) after being away from the boat for the past 6 weeks. Holidays, flu and medical mission work in the Dominican Republic. And cold weather.

Anyway, I had the bottom paint blasted off in early January prior to removing the keel.

I spent the past day and a half frabricating bracing for the keel. Today we unbolt the keel, remove the rudder although I’m not sure about that one yet, and move the hull into the shed for painting.

Pictures of the bracing for now. 

Made out of pressure treated 4X4’s, 2X4’s and lag bolts.

First draft:

  

Final product:

I’ll post pictures of the removal tonight. If all goes well...